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Centre expands AI, education and research initiatives to strengthen India’s diverse linguistic heritage.
The Government of India is intensifying efforts to promote, preserve and strengthen Indian languages through education, research and emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), Minister of State for Education Dr Sukanta Majumdar said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha. The initiatives are being implemented in accordance with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which places emphasis on multilingualism and the promotion of India’s diverse linguistic heritage.
One of the key initiatives is BharatGen, a multimodal Large Language Model (LLM) designed to develop inclusive and efficient AI solutions for all 22 scheduled Indian languages. The project is anchored at IIT Bombay and is being implemented through a consortium of institutions, including IIT Kanpur, IIT Madras, IIT Hyderabad, IIIT Hyderabad, IIM Indore and IIT Mandi. The government is also leveraging AI for translation and language-related applications through ANUVADINI, developed by the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and BHASHINI, an initiative under the Digital India Programme.
BHASHINI has developed advanced AI models for Indian languages in collaboration with more than 70 research institutions. The platform currently hosts over 360 AI-based language models and offers more than 22 specialised services, including Automatic Speech Recognition, Machine Translation, Text-to-Speech, Optical Character Recognition and Transliteration. Its language resources include 246 million parallel sentence pairs and 3.7 million monolingual text entries. According to the government, the datasets and models are publicly accessible through the BHASHINI platform and the Digital India BHASHINI Division’s account on AIKosh.
The National Language Translation Mission, being implemented through BHASHINI, is also undertaking the digitisation of extensive text and speech resources in all 22 scheduled languages. The platform has extended support to tribal languages, including Bhili and Santhali. The Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), under the Ministry of Education, has also undertaken several measures to develop resources for tribal and regional languages. In partnership with NCERT, it has prepared foundational primers and linguistic datasets in several tribal languages, including Santhali. It has also introduced a 12-week Santhali language course on the SWAYAM platform to encourage mother tongue-based education. Through the Linguistic Data Consortium for Indian Languages (LDC-IL), CIIL has developed linguistic resources for tribal languages such as Santhali and Mundari. The Santhali resources include a 50-hour speech dataset featuring recordings from 60 speakers, while parallel text corpora containing 5,200 sentences each have been developed for Santhali and Mundari.
CIIL has further developed web-based applications and tools to facilitate research and development in Indian languages. Several of these resources are hosted at CIIL data centres and are accessible through the Medha Bhashika platform. The institute has also developed foundational primers in languages such as Mundari, Kharia, Ho-Hindi, Kurukh, Korwa, Bhumij, Santhali-Hindi and Malto. Its Bharatavani portal provides a range of Santhali resources, including language-learning material, encyclopaedic content, textbooks and dictionaries.
Meanwhile, under its 2026 BRICS Chairship, India pushed for greater cooperation among member countries to preserve traditional and indigenous knowledge. The Ministry of Education hosted the BRICS Network University conference on July 20, focusing on documenting, protecting and digitally preserving such knowledge. The July 21 meeting of the BRICS NU International Governing Board reviewed collaboration among 178 universities across 11 thematic groups. India, which has 22 participating institutions, also proposed “Traditional and Indigenous Knowledge System” as the 12th thematic group. The proposal was subsequently reflected in the declaration adopted at the 13th BRICS Education Ministers Meeting on August 7. The initiatives highlight India’s efforts to leverage digital technologies to preserve its linguistic, cultural and indigenous knowledge heritage.